I love this show. The sound is great and the band is smoking this night. The only drawback, and I find this to be the case every time I see the track listing, is Seastones. I guess it’s a good intermission break, but it’s not a pleasurable listening experience

Any '74 aud is probably a good download due to the Wall of Sound and the fact that they were just tearing it up that year, but a 24-bit??? Grab it with both hands. This show has some pretty good stuff, too. The whole band joins in on Seastones and makes it something more than the usual ear torture, then comes Dark Star->Morning Dew. WRS in the first set is very nice, also.

Around & Around is a great opener, and oddly used as a closer most of the time. This version helps gets the blood flowing.
Sugaree is middling.
Beer Barrel Polka Tuning
Mexicali is great, once again. The octane level gets purer here.
Peggy-O seems another slow choice after a Bobby rocker. It also suffers from SQ issues. As for the song, it grows as it goes along, but still rather middling.
BIODTL
BEW sound issues continue but it’s tolerable. The song is fine, nothing amazing.
Cumberland Blues, all aboard! Energy boost train has arrived.
El Paso, listened to this on the Bear source. Great version!
TN Jed is a homerun, the tempo isn’t too fast (does that exist?) nor too slow, the playing by Jerome is spot on.
Jack Straw, great, energetic version.
Row Jimmy was much too slow for this sailor.
WRS is from the GD Movie Soundtrack. The last time they would ever do the Prelude and Part I, which I don’t really miss. I think it slowed down the subsequent LIG by setting the timing. This LIG is good, not a classic version, but definitely enjoyable.

Seastones>Jam>Dark Star>Dew
I listened to the Bear source for this meat sequence/set, as the GD Movie ejects what is easily my favorite Seastones. Then I had to turn around and re-listen because Bear’s source is missing parts, so I hit the Miller version.
These Seastones would have certainly been weird to attend, not knowing if it was going to be awesome and bleed into a set, or if it was going to be a snoozefest. I imagine when the music finally grabbed a person… For some, the subtle beginning may have been heaven at the time. It doesn’t maintain reliable sound until about 11 minutes or so, when we are clearly in a space environment. It grows haunting at the 18 minutes, and that’s Jerry’s cue to come out and join the madness. Once it is labelled as “Jam” it turns into Phil and Billy, Garcia not playing for a while. When he comes back out it’s with the rest of the band, and I’d say Dark Star is actually entered before the Miller delineation. The Dark Star is a great ride, with a heavy return to the theme after the first verse is sung, providing a structure jam flirting with exploration and maintaining a great energy. Getting around 14 minutes things transition from focus/exploratory to full on exploratory, the theme now gone. The Dew appears from a Dark Star that was verging on breaking down into drums after it had gone fully spacey toward the end. Supplemented by massive Phil Bombs, Jerry takes this Dew off the rails at the 6 minute mark for some nice X factor, and we’re not nearly done! Fanning and all the regularly trills and spills we love are in there. The finale is also outstanding, and ends one hell of a meat sequence/set.

Promised Land>Bertha>GSET
Back to basics to start the third set off with the classic Bob/Jer sandwich. Bertha is sort of plodding, unfortunately, after a nice Promised Land. GSET is usually a killer in this period, and while this has that nice Jerry tone, it’s missing the impact it usually delivers.
Ship sails on the smooth sea, Keith is one the piano rather than the organ.
NFA>GDTRFB>OMSN
Back to the GD Movie Soundtrack here,… The increased SQ makes it more enjoyable (I listed to the Bear version of NFA). However, there is the “end” of GDTRFB where it just goes into GD movie crapola… not the real song anymore. This means, Miller is the source to use. The NFA is fun, but kind of drags along in the end, though Bobby does get a solo. Jerry signals the entry to GDTRFB, which is better played. The ending is subtle, and the move to OMSN somewhat predictable. There’s an unnecessary 5 minutes or so of crowd at the end of this track…

US Blues from the soundtrack in all its glory, as most of us remember from the movie!


Performance Summary
The first set takes a minute to get going, but it’s a keeper, starting with Cumberland. The Bobby songs pre-Cumber are pretty hot, but Jerry’s slower songs were mediocre. The 2nd set, classic. The third set? Some disappointments in there, nice GDTRFB saves the set.

Sound Quality
This show was reviewed using many sources. Contact me if you want the break down, or to learn how to get these shows (and all really) in mp3 format. ro_ko@hotmail.com

I cant, but they can. They knew that so many ways for them, so many way for the one. So many ways. Its better with many. So many ways. No one lives without many. Better with many.

I downloaded and converted this show from 24/48 to 16/44 so as to be able to burn it to cd, if you do the same it will fit on two 80 minute cds provided you delete one of the crowd/tuning tracks from set 1 and then add the first track from set 2 to the first disc. As I indicated, this is an incredible sounding show for an AUD. "Bear" certainly knew what he was doing when he recorded this. May he rest in peace. Thanks Man!!!!!

deep recording, somewhat incomplete, of a very competent, mellow and sort of uninteresting show for '74. Great moments are scattered among ordinary fare for the era. Some of my favorite parts are cut, though.

This has to be the best sounding '74 recording I have heard, and what an awesome show!

Thanks Bear, for everything. How cool is it to have access to all of this history? Great sounding tape from the man himself.

Watching Bear recording this from his little just offstage submix feed --- This actually sounds better than it sounded that night in Winterland and it is an everliving representation of Bear's prowess recording this band.

This I dedicate to him, in his honor.

God rest you,
You merry gentleman.

50 of 5 stars.